Yemen Reports 1.5 Million Cases of Malaria a Year

SANAA, 10 July 2003 — As many as 1.5 million people suffer from malaria in Yemen every year and one percent of those die as a result, the head of the agency fighting the disease told Ath-Thawra newspaper on Tuesday.

Malaria, which claims up to 15,000 lives a year, hits all regions of the impoverished country of about 20 million people, albeit in varying degrees, said Shawki Al-Mawari, who heads the National Program for Combating Malaria.